Dark Soul, Bright Light
by DunalN2
Summary: Dunal is very misunderstood. She's got her problems, and they're making her think of her own death. However, when one person enters her life, all of it changes.


**This is a story made with a friend of mine. Obviously, my character contribution is Dunal. His is Dekral.**

School. The most dreaded place in the Galaxy. If anything could top the life of a high school on an island filled with people wielding dinosaurs, it would be labeled the worst place on the planet.

It's even worse when you just so happen to be the Princess of an alien race with at least two voices and beings residing in the same body, born as a freak of nature from the start.

I'm Dunal Pyro Nichs. Outcast of my entire _race_. The only person to ever listen to me at the time was my mom. I swear my dad hates me because I'm not pretty by his standards. My siblings? One is a lazy slug that watches TV all day, the other is an annoying bat that I would love to kill.

The sad thing is, I was only 16. I was on everyone's bad side (Lord knows how) and I was just about ready to end all this crap. Yeah, I was thinking of suicide. Not that anyone would care if I were gone. Most would probably dance over my grave.

In short, my life sucked. But one person, a single, ordinary person, managed to change my life.

You wanna find out who it was? You have to read my story.

Dunal stood, ears lowered, at the corner, waiting for her bus to come.

Behind her, a group of humans talked and gossiped about her. She could hear every word.

"Hey, check it out, it's the princess of the lizards!"

Another laughed. "Wow, don't she look ugly for a princess?" And they all giggled.

She muttered under her breath, "If the bus doesn't come soon, I'm gonna kill one of 'em."

Thankfully, no blood was shed, as the bus came just around the corner. All the others managed to knock her over into a rather large pool of water, soiling her clothes and making her wet and cold. When she did get on the bus, she had to sit all alone, her pack up against her as she stared out the window. Not that she had anything better to do.

A few blocks later, the bus stopped again to pick up a boy who looked slightly older than Dunal. To Dunal's surprise, he sat right next to her, though both were silent throughout the ride to school. However, there was something strange about the boy. He appeared to be a normal human, but he behaved somewhat strangely, and he kept his backpack on throughout the ride, almost like he was trying to hide something. A few of the other humans near them were whispering something to each other, but when he glared at them, they immediately fell silent.

Dunal folded her wings around her. She didn't want the boy to see her as a freak with her finned ears and tail, to gain another person who would gossip about her. Her life was already a living nightmare. She didn't want it worse.

Finally the bus arrived at school. despite being in the second seat from the door, Dunal wasn't allowed off until all the other kids got off. And she had forgotten about two boys. They stayed behind her and shoved her off the bus, sending her sprawling into the boy who had sat with her, her school things thrown everywhere. Not only that, but she was on top of him.

"Oh, I'm so sorry, I didn't see you there!" A boy stomped on her tail, making her wince as she could feel a new little kink in her tail spines.

"Get a life, loser," another snarled at her. This boy was Dinaurian. Rejected by her own kind.

Dunal rolled off the boy she was on top of, lying there and staring at the sky, a blank look plastered on her face. Inside, locked away, was a crying little girl, one that was still only five. Another part, the part that showed, was a hideous monster, ready to murder anyone who dare even look at her the wrong way.

"Those bullies are going to pay someday." The boy mumbled as he got up. He gathered all of the supplies and quickly sorted his from Dunal's. Then he walked over to Dunal and held out his arm to help her up.

She simply rolled over and got up. "I've got legs for a reason, you know. I can use them." With that, she quickly got all her stuff together and walked in, trying not to be social so no one gossiped about her.

Before school started, while everyone else was in the commons, talking and maybe eating the breakfast they didn't eat earlier, she sat in a corner, away from everyone else, studying for her test. She preferred to be all alone. She had to, since it was the only way she was ignored. Or even tolerated, by that point.

Little did she know, the boy who had tried to help her earlier was sitting alone, as well. He was antisocial, as well, so he just sat in his classroom, waiting until class started. But now several thoughts were running through his head. _Who was that girl...? She definitely wasn't human... She refused my help, but what if she knew who I really was...?_

The boy was snapped out of his thoughts by the loud noise of the school bell ringing. He held his hands over his ears until it stopped. He took his backpack off and got his supplies out. Underneath it, a few sections of blue scales were visible. He slouched in his chair to cover them. He wasn't human, either, but he didn't want anyone knowing that.

Dunal searched for her first class, getting shoved to the ground twice in the process, before she actually found it. There wasn't any assigned seats, so she just went to the back, hid herself with her books, and kept quiet, again hoping no one would see her. She tucked her tail beneath her chair, her wings pressed against her back, and her ears folded up so that the teacher wouldn't tease her about her looks. She had enough school kids doing that already.

The boy looked over at the other students entering the room. He recognized one of them as the girl he had encountered earlier. She seemed upset. He could easily tell that much. _Has she been bullied that much, or is there more to it? _He mentally asked. He sighed and straightened his back, exposing his scales. The girl was a few seats behind him. He was actually hoping she would notice and realize he was one of her kind, as well. He reached under his shirt and pulled out a small necklace with a sapphire gem in the middle. He looked at it, and his thumb hovered over the gem, tempted to touch it. He soon tucked the necklace back into his shirt without touching the gem. He knew what would happen if he did. And it wouldn't end well.

She simply read throughout class. She ignored everyone, unwilling to even look up at the teacher. She was still studying for the test in two periods, already wishing the day was over. When the bell rang, she was annoyed that her good book was interrupted for another round of pushing and shoving and the ruining of her clothes. She took it all, murder in her eyes, but forced herself not to strangle someone.

Another group of bullies approached Dunal. One shoved her to the ground, knocking her supplies from her hands again. There were three of them. Two were human, one was dinaurian. The boy from earlier saw this. He was tired of seeing her get bullied. He approached them, rage in his eyes.

"Get away from her." He said through gritted teeth. The bullies looked at the boy and laughed.

"And what are you going to do about it?" The dinaurian taunted.

"I don't care what you think of her." The boy said as he clenched his fists. "Leave her alone before I hurt **you**." The group laughed again.

The boy had had enough. He snapped and walked towards the bullies. He kicked one of the humans in the crotch, causing him to double over in pain. He then shoved him to the ground.

"How do you like it?" He asked angrily. "Is it fun? No? Then stop doing it to her!" He turned to the other two. The other human backed away, but the dinaurian simply chuckled and swung at the boy. The boy grabbed the dinaurian's arm and punched him in the stomach. He shoved the dinaurian against the lockers hard enough to dent the locker. He then held him against the locker by his chest, a murderous look in his eyes.

"If you ever mess with her again, I'll tear your throat out." The boy said. "So stay away if you want to live. Got it?" The dinaurian nodded, clearly afraid now. The boy let him go and he ran away, as did the third bully. He then walked back to Dunal. "You okay?" He asked her.

She nodded, still trying to gather her things so she could leave. "Thanks," was all she managed to grunt out before she turned to go on her way. No one had ever defended her, and she made a mental note to thank him during lunch.

She hissed as she put her weight on her leg, though. When she fell she had managed to hurt her leg.

"Need some help?" He asked. "I can help you to the nurse's office..."

"I might. I think I sprained my ankle..." She mumbled.

"Here." He said. He wrapped her arm over his shoulder so he could help support her. She leaned against him and he helped her walk through the halls to the nurse's office. Most of the other students who had seen what happened cleared out of the way. Apparently, people were afraid of them now. But being avoided was better than being bullied in the boy's opinion.

Once they reached the nurse's office, the boy helped her into a chair. When the nurse arrived to help Dunal, the boy turned to leave, but Dunal stopped him.

"Please don't leave..." She said. "You're the only person here who has actually been nice to me..." The boy turned around and sat in another chair next to her.

"Any idea why those bullies are always targeting you?" The boy asked.

"No one likes me..." Dunal mumbled. "Even my own race doesn't respect me. The humans are even worse..." She winced as the nurse moved her ankle to examine it. The nurse walked away after a moment.

"I know how it feels to be an outcast." The boy mumbled as he put a hand on Dunal's shoulder to comfort her. "I've been bullied a lot. I've learned to deal with it, but I store the frustration. If I see someone else get bullied, I have a reason to let out that frustration. And that could have gone a lot worse if they had tried to fight back again... That dinaurian is lucky I didn't break his arm, or worse..."

"Why would you protect a freak like me?" Dunal asked.

"You're not a freak." the boy said. "Besides..." He removed his backpack, exposing his scales. Dunal's eyes widened when she saw this.

"You're a dinaurian...?" Dunal asked.

"My name is Dekral." He said. "I have a holographic disguise generator, but it has a glitch that messes up part of the disguise. It's defective, but I use it anyways..." He put his backpack back on when he noticed the nurse coming back with a brace and a set of crutches. She put the brace on Dunal's injured foot and gave her the crutches, then helped her up.

She winced, trying to stand well. Dekral immediately got up to try to help her.

"Maybe you should try to avoid putting weight on that leg for now..." he suggested. "It won't be very comfortable, but it'll reduce the pain."

Dunal tried to smile through the pain. "Thank you." She said.

"You're welcome." Dekral replied. "And if you ever need help again, just let me know."

"Okay, thanks for your help." She slowly moved to the main office. "I'm going home."

"Alright. See you later." Dekral said. He looked at his watch and realized what time it was. School had already ended. "How did that happen...?" He mumbled before leaving the school and heading home.

Dunal limped off to the buses, trying to find hers. Dekral already knew which bus was his, and it was the same one as Dunal. When he saw her wandering around, looking for the bus, he walked over to her.

"If you're looking for our bus, it's over here." He said. "Follow me."

She nodded, moving to him. "Okay..."

He led her to the bus and helped her into it. No one bothered them this time, to their surprise. It was clear that either the bullies weren't on this bus or they were too afraid to mess with them. Normally, they would have taken advantage of Dunal's injury, but no one even spoke to them this time.

When they reached Dunal's house, Dekral got out with her to help her and to make sure no one tried to hurt her. The bus left without Dekral, but he didn't seem to care. His house was only a few blocks away, so it wasn't a big deal for him to have to walk home. Dunal was going to ask him why he decided to give up his ride home to help her, but he just smiled at her before she could. She already knew why. He was trying to be a friend to her, so he was willing to help her out, even if it meant he had to walk home.

She suddenly stopped and, with great difficulty, turned around to face him.

"I can fix your holographic device if you want, but it would take a day or so." She smiled, showing her fangs. "If you wouldn't mind." She held out her hand.

"Um..." He said, sounding quite nervous. He pulled the necklace from under his shirt and looked at it for a moment. "Please try to fix it as quickly as possible then. I always wear this because it belonged to my father. It's very special to me." He touched the gem and it lit up. The hologram flickered off, returning him to his dinaurian form. He then took the necklace off and gave it to Dunal.

She nodded. "I'll do my best. I'm not perfect, either, and I'll try to get my dad to help." She then added under her breath, "If he decides to even notice me today..."

And she turned around to head back home on her crutches, holding the little necklace in her teeth gently, as her hands were full.

Dekral seemed a bit concerned by the last part of her statement, but he decided it would be better not to ask about it. He didn't want to bring up anything that might upset her. Instead, he simply nodded. Once she reached her house, he turned to leave, heading towards his own home.

The instant the door shut there was yelling in the house, and Dunal retreated to her room. She sat on her bed, staring at the knife beside her. It tempted her. As did her medicine on the nightstand. Two extra pills as an overdose would end it all, all the horrible things in her life...

But Dekral. He had helped her, defended her when others only wanted to beat her. He had almost broken the arm of a kid to protect her.

"Why?" she asked herself, looking out the window to watch him walk home. "Why did you protect me?"

Dekral heard the yelling. He was tempted to go back to see what had happened, but he knew that wouldn't end well. He didn't want to get caught in the crossfire or make things worse for Dunal. Or both.

Instead, he continued the walk to his empty house. When he got inside, he immediately locked the door and headed to his room. He sat on the edge of his bed, thinking through the events of the day. He had unleashed only a small portion of his anger to get those bullies to leave Dunal alone. Had he unleashed it all, the bullies would likely have been killed, and that wouldn't have ended well for him either. He could have easily killed them in his true form. But he held back. However, some of his frustration was taken out in other ways.

He pulled his left sleeve up and looked at the scars where he had purposely ripped several scales from his arm. It was painful, but it helped with the stress. It gave him something to take out his anger on. He knew it was wrong, but he kept doing it anyways. He didn't want to, but in his rage, he couldn't stop himself.

But now he had a new reason to help him stop. He had a friend. And as he reached down to pry off another scale, he hesitated. He pulled his hand back, but this time, it wasn't taking a scale with it. He sighed and covered his arm again. He then fell backwards onto his bed and stared at the ceiling.

_What would she have thought of me if I hadn't held back...? Or even if she knew about my life?_ He thought. Eventually, he managed to fall asleep, worn out from the events of the day.

Dunal too, fell asleep, but not before taking four pills and putting her knife away. When she did, she finally felt the blankets protected more than just her skin. Now, they protected her little cage, weighing it down and starting to break it. Dekral was all she could think about as she drifted to sleep.

When Dekral left the next morning for school, he was surprised to see that Dunal wasn't at the bus stop. He expected her to show up at any moment, but when the bus arrived, she still wasn't there.

_Did she forget today was a school day? Maybe she's just running late..._ He shook the thoughts away and boarded the bus. The other students clearly had no idea who he was, having never seen his true form before. But, as usual, he just sat in one of the seats without a single word. But before the bus could take off again, he jumped up from his seat and got back off. He ran to Dunal's house, starting to get seriously worried.

He ran up to the door and knocked on it. To his surprise, it opened slightly as he did. He slowly opened it and walked inside, despite knowing that he shouldn't. But his concern overrode his common sense as he looked around.

"Dunal, are you here?" He asked. His concern grew stronger when the only response he got was his own echo. He walked to one of the rooms and knocked on the door. Like the front door, it opened slightly. He slowly opened it and peeked inside. But what he saw caused him to swing the door open and run inside.

Dunal was on the ground, not moving at all. Next to her was an empty pill bottle. He read the label and panicked when he saw that it was a bottle for iodine pills.

_Oh no... Did she overdose and kill herself?!_ He thought. He pulled a cell phone from his pocket and was about to call 911, but he stopped when he realized that she was still breathing.

_Wait a minute..._ He realized her breathing was normal, not shallow or weak like it would be if she was dying. _She's just asleep...?_

While he was quite annoyed, he was also very relieved to know she was alright.

She twitched her tail, the fins at their full length, unlike the small, smooth tail she had at school. She now had a small little horn on her nose, and her fangs stuck out of her mouth slightly.

On her nightstand was Dekral's holographic device, dismantled, sorted, and looking more like she had broken it. Dekral was quite irritated when he saw this. _She had better fix it, or she's going to regret it..._ He thought. He looked back at Dunal. He was quite confused, since she looked a bit different than she did at school.

Speaking of school...

Dekral looked at his watch and sighed. There was no way they would make it to school on time now. They had five minutes for Dunal to wake up, get ready, leave, and get to the school if they wanted to make it on time. Dekral could possibly make it on his own, but Dunal definitely wouldn't. But instead of trying to dash full-speed to the school to get to his class in time, he decided to stay with Dunal.

He shook her shoulder, trying to wake her up.

She simply rolled over, mumbling about some V-Raptor she had to beat. Dekral was very confused by this, but he shoved that problem aside.

He shook her shoulder again. "Hey, Dunal...? Hello...? You need to wake up. You're late for school."

Dunal growled and swiped at him, making a small scratch on his arm, then smacked him across the face with her tail fin.

"Go away, daddy, I wanna sleep..."

Dekral barely reacted to the scratch, since he had been through a lot worse, but he was knocked down when her fin hit him.

"Ow..." He mumbled as he rubbed his sore cheek. "I guess she doesn't realize who I am..." He sighed and got up to leave, since it seemed that he wasn't going to be able to wake her up.

She woke up hours later, confused and disoriented. She went downstairs to make herself some soup. When she took her temperature, it was very high, even for her. She fell asleep after eating her soup. And all day she slept.

Dekral, on the other hand, went to school, not caring that he was late. The teacher didn't make an issue of it, mostly because he didn't recognize Dekral and thought he was a new student. However, no one else recognized him either. Since he was assumed to be a new kid, he wasn't treated very well by the other students. He was a fresh bullying target, as far as they were concerned. Dekral, being a fairly non-violent person, took the bullying like he normally would. By the time he got home, he was covered in minor scrapes and bruises from the physical bullies. But he was so exhausted that he skipped dinner, went to his room, flopped down on his bed, and fell asleep.

In the middle of the night, Dunal woke up. She somehow managed to throw on her robe and stumble out without making a sound, creeping through the neighborhood, searching for something. She hit many things on her way, making a racket, but she didn't wake anyone up.

Dekral did wake up during this, but it wasn't as a result of the noises. He shot up in bed, hyperventilating, having had another nightmare. Once he calmed down, which took several minutes, he heard noises from outside. He looked out the window, but it was too dark for him to see anything. He didn't worry too much about it, though. He just walked back to his bed and tried to go back to sleep.

Eventually Dunal fell over on someone's front door. She hoped it was hers. She couldn't have gone far from home. She'd only been wandering for a few minutes.

Dekral heard a thud from right outside his house. He grabbed a gun from his nightstand, loaded it, and cautiously walked to the front door. The gun was filled with blanks, since the local shops wouldn't allow him to buy actual bullets, but it was still good for scaring off potential burglars. When he opened the door, however, he sighed and put the gun in his pocket when he realized it was Dunal, who was lying down on his porch, apparently asleep.

She groaned. A shiver went down her spine as her dreams turned sour. The smell of the gun turned it into a nightmare.

Dekral could tell something was wrong. He tried to wake her up, hoping to snap her out of it.

She swiped at him, making a deep gash on his arm with her sharp claws. And then she sat up and screamed.

He ignored the pain in his arm, more worried about Dunal than the wound. "Are you okay...?" He asked semi-calmly, trying to help her relax a bit.

She instantly touched her charm and activated her Battle Form, instantly trying to eat him, absolute, wild fear in her eyes.

He jumped backwards and dodged the attack, barely escaping her jaws. "I'm not going to hurt you, Dunal!" He shouted. "I thought we were friends!"

Dunal simply smashed into the wall of the house. No longer in control of herself, she shot flames at anything and everything, but didn't make anything catch fire. She bit down on a tree, snapping it in half like it were a toothpick. It fell as she tried to break something else, but it fell onto her back and smashed her into the ground.

Dekral was hit by the flames and burned slightly, but he was still able to get up. He looked around for his gun, which had fallen out of his pocket while he tried to dodge Dunal's attacks. Just as he found it, he heard a crash from outside. He walked to the door and saw Dunal crushed under a tree.

"Dunal!" Dekral shouted. He dropped the gun, ran over to her, and slammed his fist against the tree as hard as he could, causing it to roll off of her. He immediately tried shaking her to wake her up. She didn't move. Scales littered the area around her. He panicked and checked her pulse, and, thankfully, it was normal. He sighed in relief, knowing she was just asleep again. However, the exhaustion finally started to catch up with him again shortly after. Knowing he probably wouldn't make it back to his room, he walked back to the door and quickly locked it. He walked back towards Dunal and collapsed next to her, literally falling asleep.

And she slept with him, coiled around him.

**Any thoughts? We're ready for any comments on our writing! Any suggestions are appreciated.**


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